No Furnace this weekend (Fan did not come on when activated)

[Jim Carter]

So when I got the camper set up and bedtime was approaching I kicked the thermostat on and voila--Nothing happened. The fan did not come on. No heat entered the cabin.

The heater worked last month on our way from its place of birth to our home in PA.

I store it in a non-heated, storage facility. While in storage for the last month the propane tank was removed--storage facility rules about flammable stuff.

The stove worked.

I checked the fuses by switching one ten amp for another. No change.

The thermostat was smacked with the mattress as the bed was being made hard enough to knock off the cover. Checked it and the wires all seemed good and contact was being made when the control was moved.

What more can I check before I contact Cary?

Thanks

 

[rotus8]

It is not a gas problem, even if the gas is shut off, the fan will run (just no heat of course). The thermostat would be the highest suspect to me - try shorting the two wires together, possibly jumping the two terminals with a wire, or better yet removing the wires from the thermostat screws and twisting together. The voltage present on the wires is not hazardous, don't worry about touching them.

 

[Jim Carter]

Thanks. I will check this out ASAP.

 

[mariusz]

I hope it works by now

 

[Tour 931]

Any updates? I had problems with my furnace also but it works fine now.

 

[Jim Carter]

I am finally able to get to checking out the furnace this weekend. But one more question that probably should be obvious.

Should the fan run with the propane bottle out of the system and on battery power only when I jumper the wires?

I store in a mini-storage facility and they are unhappy with flammable things like tanks of propane but that is less of a problem than the fact that there is no electrical power in the facility. I can always bring the propane tank from home.

 

[Henry]

I just went out to double check on mine. I am currently out of propane and do not have a bottle connected. When I turn the thermostat on, the fan starts running. It should do a purge cycle for a little bit and then the gas valve will open and it will attempt to light. You should be able to here a click outside by the furnace area. There is a flame sensor built into the furnace and if it does not detect a flame within a short time, then the gas valve will close and the cycle repeats (the fan keeps running). If after about 3 minutes there is no flame, then the furnace shuts off (fan stops running).

Make sure you have the 12 volt power switch to on since the furnace runs on 12 volts.

 

[Jim Carter]

I just went out to double check on mine. I am currently out of propane and do not have a bottle connected. When I turn the thermostat on, the fan starts running. It should do a purge cycle for a little bit and then the gas valve will open and it will attempt to light. You should be able to here a click outside by the furnace area. There is a flame sensor built into the furnace and if it does not detect a flame within a short time, then the gas valve will close and the cycle repeats (the fan keeps running). If after about 3 minutes there is no flame, then the furnace shuts off (fan stops running).

Make sure you have the 12 volt power switch to on since the furnace runs on 12 volts.

THANKS!

 

[Jim Carter]

Got to the camper today.
Jumpering the thermostat did nothing.
So I guess it goes to the shop to fix unless anyone has any further ideas.

 

[SethB]

...I checked the fuses by switching one ten amp for another. No change...

Time and time again when troubleshooting, I've checked the most likely suspect, in a hurry, and moved on to the less likely sources of problems, only to later find that I should have been a bit (or a LOT) more careful in the first steps! The same thing applies to finding my keys - they *almost* were in the right spot, not in any of the dozen less-likely spots I checked.

It's pretty easy to mis-identify the fuse slots - everything is awkward down there, it's dark, etc. Based on my own experience, I'd go back to the fuses one last time before going in for repair.

 

[Jim Carter]

Time and time again when troubleshooting, I've checked the most likely suspect, in a hurry, and moved on to the less likely sources of problems, only to later find that I should have been a bit (or a LOT) more careful in the first steps! The same thing applies to finding my keys - they *almost* were in the right spot, not in any of the dozen less-likely spots I checked.

It's pretty easy to mis-identify the fuse slots - everything is awkward down there, it's dark, etc. Based on my own experience, I'd go back to the fuses one last time before going in for repair.

I agree with you on this. So much so that I have pulled ever ten amp fuse (one at a time) and checked it with a multimeter.

 

[Randy]

I assumed you reached out to Cary/Craig?

 

[Jim Carter]

I assumed you reached out to Cary/Craig?

Yes, today after I tried to get the fan to run by jumping the thermostat to no avail.

 

[Randy]

I'm sure they will help you troubleshoot.

 

[Jim Carter]

Finally got this problem resolved. After a bit of time on the phone troubleshooting with Craig, it was determined that the altitude compensator was faulty.

They sent me a new one after putting it on the bench and figuring out what part was failing (I assume for more than one customer) and fixing that issue.

And today I had the time, just before 90 degree weather hits, to put the replacement in.

It works!

Many thanks to Craig and Cary (the email conduit ).

 

[Ben]

Finally got this problem resolved. After a bit of time on the phone troubleshooting with Craig, it was determined that the altitude compensator was faulty.

They sent me a new one after putting it on the bench and figuring out what part was failing (I assume for more than one customer) and fixing that issue.

And today I had the time, just before 90 degree weather hits, to put the replacement in.

It works!

Many thanks to Craig and Cary (the email conduit ).

Hi Jim, Great to hear you got that fixed. What do you mean "after putting it on the bench"? Did you have to go back to the factory? Hopefully you won't need that furnace for several months to come at this point. Ben H

 

[Jim Carter]

Hi Jim, Great to hear you got that fixed. What do you mean "after putting it on the bench"? Did you have to go back to the factory? Hopefully you won't need that furnace for several months to come at this point. Ben H

No, I did not go back to Wisconsin.
Before mailing me a replacement altitude compensator, Craig put a new one on his bench to make sure it worked and to trouble shoot what part was failing. Apparently this has been some sort of common, though irregular, problem.

 

[Tour 931]

It happened to mine also.

 

[Jim Carter]

An update.

We are camping in Montana and the temps last night hit a low of 39 deg F. And thanfully the furnace functioned perfectly. We uswd the high altitude setting since we are well above 4K feet.